February 25, 2014

Enhancing the ebook

In a continuing effort at the frontier of electronic publishing, the Lincoln Institute is now offering its bestselling title, Made for Walking: Density and Neighborhood Form, as an enhanced ebook on the Inkling platform. A sample chapter is available for free viewing here. Inkling is renowned for uniting the latest enhanced ebook technology with the most fluid design in the medium, which is particularly compelling for the subjects of urban planning and urban design, said Maureen Clarke, director of Publications at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.“Made for Walking has been especially popular with students and other millennial generation readers, who tend to eschew cars and prefer to live in compact, walkable environments. We hope to compel more of them in the digital space with this state-of-the-art product in epub3, which renders beautifully across a wide range of mobile devices and browsers,” said Clarke. Through self-guided tours, peel-away scale maps, scrollable panoramas, and photo slideshows, readers can explore walkable neighborhoods and other elements of cities where residents can live comfortably without a car. The ebook also includes a five-minute educational video about urban walkability as exemplified by Davis Square in Somerville, Massachusetts.Made for Walking: Density and Urban Form, by landscape architect and urban designer Julie Campoli, is ideal for coursework, and Inkling content is search-enabled and shareable via social media. Using Twitter or Facebook, readers can raise questions and exchange notes in the virtual margins and share interactive segments with anyone in their social networks. “The interactive Inkling format affords users a more immersive experience of the walkable neighborhoods captured by Campoli’s street-level photographs and panoramas,” said Clarke.The Made for Walking Inkling edition is available for iPad and iPhone, as well as other mobile devices, Macs and PCs via the Web reader. A free sample includes the video and a portion of chapter 4, which showcases 12 walkable neighborhoods in the U.S. and Canada. Most web browsers allow direct access to the sample, but for the best experience on mobile, users should create an Inkling log-in to download and explore the free content on their phones or tablets. Users can purchase the book or individual chapters through a link on the Lincoln Institute website. Made for Walking became the Lincoln Institute’s bestselling title after its publication in December 2012. The book is a guide to the essential ingredients of walkable districts, examining how urban form influences travel behavior and neighborhood vitality. Julie Campoli builds on the “five Ds” of transit-oriented, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly urban areas: Together with the element of parking, the Ds have evolved into a handy device for defining and measuring compact form and its influence on travel and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Julie Campoli, principal at Terra Firma Design inBurlington,Vermont, looked at 12 pedestrian-friendly urban neighborhoods in theUnited States andCanada, from Green Point inBrooklyn,New York to LoDo and the Central PlatteValley inDenver, Colorado.